Kehazaei should have been on ventilator

The transportation of asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei to a Port Moresby hospital would have been far safer if medical staff had put him on a ventilator before he was airlifted there, an intensive care expert has told an inquest.

Mr Kehazaei, also known as Khazaei, was flown to Pacific International Hospital after he deteriorated while being treated for an infected cut at a Manus Island clinic in August 2014, but died two weeks later at a Brisbane hospital.

At an inquest at the Brisbane Coroners Court, Dr Drew Wenck, who has been director of intensive care at Cairns Base Hospital for 21 years, said the 24-year-old should have been intubated and ventilated at the clinic.

"It is even more important that these things are in place for the transfer because of the danger of transfer in an aircraft without the ability to further intervene," he said.

"It would have been far safer."

An older person may not have survived the flight, the inquest heard.

"The reason he probably arrived alive is that he was 24," Dr Wenck said.